flagraret invidia, evocavit novercam et concessit Larolavinium, sibi vero Albam constituit. qui quoniam sine liberis periit Silvio qui et ipse Ascanius dictus est, suum reliquit imperium.postea Albani omnes reges Silvii dicti sunt ab huius nomine; and (Peter, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 60.; Serv. auctus, ad Aen., I, 269): Cato ait, triginta annis expletis eum [Ascanium] Cassius Hemina says (Peter, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 99; Schol. Ilio capto Aeneas cum dis penatibus umeris inpositis erupisse duosque filios Ascanium et Eurybaten bracchio eius innixos ante ora hostium praetergressos. If there had been further and more complete discussions of Ascanius, the ancient commentators on the Aeneid would almost certainly have recorded them as they have those about Aeneas himself, and so we may conclude that Ascanius played little part in the literature before the Augustan age. This is readily explained by the fact that the Romans themselves gave little importance to him, because they connected themselves with Troy through the Alban kings, and, like Cato, considered the Alban kings descendants of Aeneas and Lavinia through their son Silvius Aeneas (cf. Varro, Peter, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 21, 36; Schwegler, Römische Geschichte, Vol. I, p. 337). There was a vague tradition that Aeneas had been accompanied from Troy by a son, and to explain the failure of this son to succeed to his father's power Cato allowed him to die without issue, and, to be safe, endowed his half-brother with his name, Ascanius. This vagueness about Ascanius is reflected in Vergil's contemporaries. Livy in one place (I, I, II) says that Ascanius was the son of Aeneas by Lavinia, and later discussing his succession to the throne says (I, 3, 2): Haud ambigam quis enim rem tam veterem pro certo adfirmet?-hicine fuerit Ascanius an maior quam hic Creusa matre Ilio incolumi natus comesque inde paternae fugae, quem Iulum eundem Iulia gens auctorem nominis sui nuncupat. Is Ascanius ubicumque et quacumque matre genitus certe natum Aenea constat . . . novam [urbem] ipse aliam sub Albano monte condidit, quae ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis Longa Alba appellata. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who claims to have studied all available sources, definitely states (I, 47, 54) that Ascanius returned to Troy and (I, 65) that the name of a son of Aeneas and Creusa, Euryalus, was changed to Ascanius during the flight to Italy. It was this EuryalusAscanius who founded Alba Longa (I, 66) and it was his son, Iulus, who contested the succession with Silvius Aeneas (I, 70). This presumption of two Ascaniuses and a son of one of them allowed Dionysius to harmonize the Greek and Latin legends. That he felt it necessary to do this shows the existence of doubts and disputes of the kind which Livy despaired of answering. The moot points here are:-(1) Did Ascanius come to Italy? Greek sources say no; Latin say yes; Dionysius compromises; Vergil gives positive details. (2) Was Ascanius the son of Creusa or Lavinia? Homer gives no help; Cato and Cassius Hemina say the former; Dionysius supposes two Ascaniuses, both sons of Creusa; Livy first calls him Lavinia's son and later admits his ignorance; Vergil agrees with Cato and Cassius. (3) Who succeeded to the rule of Alba Longa? Cato says Ascanius died childless; Dionysius says Ascanius' son contested the rule with his half-uncle Silvius, failed, and was compensated by a priesthood; Livy says that whosesoever son Ascanius was, his son succeeded to the rule; Vergil says Silvius Aeneas and his descendants ruled at Alba. This statement (VI, 760-787) has been held by many scholars to conflict with the prophecies of the greatness of Ascanius' line. W. Kroll ("Studien über die Komposition der Aeneis," Fleckeisens Jbbb., Supplement Bd. 27, 1900, p. 137) says Vergil either did not notice a contradiction or forgot to remove it. A. Gercke ("Die Analyse als Grundlage der höheren Kritik," Neue fbbb., 1901, p. III) says that the lines about Silvius Aeneas and his descendants are a remnant of an earlier draft. Hertzberg (cited by E. Norden, "Vergils Aeneis im Lichte ihrer Zeit," Neue Jbbb., 1901, p. 277) says that the contradiction is one of the points which Vergil would have cleared up had he lived. Norden (op. cit., p.277 f.)shows the differences in the legend as indicated by Livy, and mentions the passages in the Aeneid in which Iulus is called the founder of Alba and of the Julian line. He summarizes the passage of the sixth book (756 f.) which speaks of Silvius Aeneas as regem regumque parentem ... unde genus Longa nostrum dominabitur Alba. He then takes issue with Gebhardi and Heyne who say that nothing in this passage prevents Silvius from being the successor of Ascanius. So he also finds a contradiction. For this he offers two solutions, one that Vergil was drawing from different sources when he wrote the conflicting passages, another that he was endeavouring to effect a compromise. This compromise, he says (p. 279), is to let part of the Alban kings be Trojan and part Italian descendants of Aeneas. In making some of them Trojans he says that Vergil followed a source of which we have no knowledge. He adds that in general it was difficult to legitimize the Julian dynasty, and quotes Dionysius' attempt to do so by giving the son of Ascanius a priesthood in Alba. Heinze (Epische Technik, p. 155, n.1) considers all of these discussions and makes the following statements: that Vergil assigns the founding of Alba to Ascanius but makes the rule of Alba after him gente sub Hectorea, not sub Iuli gente; that Vergil never asserts or denies that Ascanius was the founder of the Alban line of kings; that in the later Alban line Vergil follows the Roman official opinion; that Iulus could not be shown by Anchises to Aeneas because he had already been born; that the Julii had never claimed to be descended from the Alban kings. It is possible to combine the opinions of Norden and Heinze and so, perhaps, to arrive at Vergil's true purpose. First it is necessary to point out that Vergil must have realized the problem presented by Ascanius. We know from our consideration of other characters that our author studied all of his sources and that he took them into consideration. There is no reason to suppose that he would not do this in the case of Ascanius, who plays such an important part in the poem, and if he did he must have seen how the sources conflicted, one with another. Also he was necessarily familiar with the claims of the Julii, and even if he were not going to endorse them he would at least not have opposed them. The Julii, as Heinze says, never claimed descent from the Alban kings, but they did from Venus and Anchises through Aeneas and Ascanius. Vergil, like all of his Latin sources, literary and historical, says that Ascanius founded Alba, and that a Silvius whose mother or grandmother was Lavinia succeeded to the rule. Therefore he is faced with the problem of allowing Iulus to have descendants who did not inherit his power. He solves this by a compromise, but not, I believe, by the one Norden suggests. The method he adopts is to refer continually to Ascanius as founder of Alba Longa, and to Ascanius' descendants as men who should be great, giving as examples only Julius Caesar and Augustus. That is, he makes no specific reference to the Julian line between the founder and Caesar. In addition to this lack of particular reference, he seems to take pains to draw a parallel between Ascanius and Lavinia, and between the late descendants of the former and the early ones of the latter. It seems to be in accord with this policy that Vergil gives to both Ascanius (II, 682 ff.) and Lavinia (VII, 70 ff.) the omen of fire about the head, an omen that we know, from Livy's description of Servius Tullius (I, 39), portended greatness. Further, in each case the omen brought about a decision important to the future of the race, Anchises deciding to leave Troy, and Latinus to welcome Aeneas. Similarly a study of the prophecies of the greatness of Aeneas' line shows a remarkable tendency on Vergil's part to parallel the descendants of Lavinia and those of Iulus. Jupiter in his prophecy to Venus (I, 257 ff.) foretells Aeneas' wars in Italy, the founding of Alba by Ascanius, the rule there E |